The present invention relates to a print material removing apparatus, particularly to a print material removing apparatus utilizing a liquid.
Conventionally, from the point of view of sheet recycling, there have been proposed a variety of apparatuses for removing the print material on a sheet as a recording member, on which characters or images are recorded by an electrophotographic apparatus, by impregnating the sheet with a liquid to reuse the sheet. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2-111987 discloses an apparatus in which an OHP sheet printed by an electrophotographic copying machine is immersed into a treating bath filled with organic solvent to swell the toner as a print material which is then removed from the OHP sheet by a brush roller. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 7-140554 discloses an apparatus in which a sheet having a water-swelling surface layer is immersed into a treating bath filled with water to swell the surface layer and then the print material is removed by a brush roller.
In such print material removing apparatus utilizing a liquid, the liquid is brought out by adhering to the sheet and vaporizes from the treating bath. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically replenish the treating bath with the liquid. Since the liquid becomes foul or deteriorated, it is also necessary to timely drain the liquid from the treating bath. Thus, the apparatus has been desired to easily conduct replenishment and drainage of the liquid. Furthermore, in such apparatus, when a sheet jam is caused in the liquid, not only handling for taking the sheet out of the liquid is difficult, but also user's hands are fouled with the liquid, making the user uncomfortable. Thus, there has been a disadvantage that jam treatment or maintenance such as cleaning of the treating bath can not be easily conducted.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2-111987 discloses an apparatus provided with a trap channel on the bottom of a treating bath filled with organic solvent and with a waste chamber via a gate valve under the trap channel. The apparatus is possible to drain the sediment in the trap channel of the treating bath into the waste chamber by opening the gate valve. However, the waste chamber of the apparatus described in the above publication is provided only for draining the sediment and never used at jam treatment. The waste chamber has not a construction that the liquid drained in the waste chamber can be transferred to the treating bath. Therefore, even if the liquid in the treating bath is discharged into the waste chamber via the gate valve at the occurrence of jam, the liquid can not be reused. This means that the apparatus can not be immediately restored to an operable condition.